While it’s tempting to see this as startling, the only starting aspect is that the robots were evolving intelligence, not that they were lying. Despite the reality that pretty much everyone values honesty, the reality is that everyone lies. Effective lying is directly correlated to intelligence, and lying is actually a developmental milestone in children, which correlates positively with brighter kids. Lying has also been found in primates, and it is speculated that lying is at the root of the evolution of the higher intelligence we humans prize so much.

After all, in order to lie you must be aware of the truth, and then actively conceive and sell an alternate reality. It’s a rather complicated mental task. But that hardly means that all liars are geniuses, or all geniuses are liars. It just means that the ability to lie convincingly correlates with intelligence. How you use that can still make you a good or a bad person.

There’s a world of difference between selling, “Honey, that dress looks amazing on you!” and selling, “Our best intelligence says there are WMDs in Iraq.”

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I’m a veteran who qualified as “Expert” on the M4. If you ask me to grab a weapon and go guard a school, I’m going to tell you to fuck off because I don’t want to be part of creating more dead children. #EnoughIsEnough